•
Rating:
England at the end of the sixties was musically traversed by an unprecedented underground movement: hippies in psychedelic disarray coupled with a mocking attitude towards the established and re-established society. The shining stars of those exceptional years were Deviants, Pink Faires, and Hawkwind. Among these were the Magic Muscle, as usual more of a commune of musicians (settled at 49 Cotham Road, Bristol) than a stable group: an entity open to all the contributions from friends in the circle. The cornerstone members were the bassist Adrian Shaw (future Hawkwind and Bevis Frond) and the singer/guitarist Rod Goodway, who came from the experience with another freak musician, Andy "Android Funnel" Rickell, and his Rustic Hinge in the Dorset countryside, where they tried to combine the muriatic sound of Captain Beefheart with the polytonal music of Bela Bartok!
This album released in 1988 contains material owned by Rod Goodway recorded between 1970 and 73, and it's extraordinary stuff, muscular rock on the first side which instead dissolves into magical flows on the second. Therefore, Magic Muscle could be to your taste whether you have a Harley parked outside your house or you are the happy owner of a ticket for a space flight without leaving the couch. In the tracks recorded at HTV studios in Bristol, the opening ride "I Can Travel Anywhere/Fly Brothers" is a hard blues that melts the limestone of Blue Cheer into the acid pools created by the liquefied moods of the decomposing body of the Grateful Dead. The electric maelstrom on the tribal carpet of drums and percussion diffuses into the epic pace of Van der Graaf Generator, a great track with a superb vocal performance: Rod Goodway sounds like Peter Hammil, more wicked than ever. "Woodcarver Man" also follows the sinuous mood of a powerful rock transformed by the magical aspect typical of British mists. Not having a lead guitarist, Magic Muscle calls in housemate Keith Christmas, a graphic artist who had only ever played an acoustic guitar, for the final electric solo... The other three tracks on the first side are those recorded in a London studio in 1973 featuring the eclectic violin of Simon House (High Tide, Third Ear Band) highlighted, but they are quite normal though musically among the "cleanest" of the album.
In fact, Magic Muscle explode in sessions among friends, like those on the second side. This is the case with "You Better See" which comes from recordings made in the basement of the building on Cotham Road. The sound is obviously dirty, but the entry of guitarist Huw Gower transforms, with his nervously phosphorescent style, the group, leading it towards liquid melodies like Quicksilver Messenger Service suspended between sunlit American deserts and the green valleys of Dorset (an area of hippie communes). It's a pity that this track was considered by the record producers as the only passable one for the publishing standard, contrary to Rod who has always regarded the tapes of the "January 4th" session as the best substance of the Magic Muscle sound.
The rest of the album offers us three more ballads to expand the mind crafted by old friend Android Funnel on a tape recorded in Puddletown, Dorset. Lysergically transfigured blues ("Spring Green Blues"), raga on carpets of congas ("Desert Sand"), colorful hallucinations residue of a trip on the West Coast ("Schoolgirl Love/"Feel it Fear it"). Huw Gower's lead guitar is psychedelically magnificent while the two singers, Rod and guest "Big" Pete Thorpe (remember Elias Hulk?), take off without a parachute.
They remain hovering in the air as long as possible, if you put this record on and look up at the sky you might still see them gliding......
Tracklist
Loading comments slowly
